Top 10 Games New to Us in 2023

0:04 hey I'm Ryan this is my brother Daniel this is rolls in the family and it is 2024 now it is a new year it is time for reflection you know get all those habits back on track uh today we today we are doing some reflection on 2023 uh and specifically looking at all the new games we played in 2023 and ranking them so these aren't necessarily 2023 releases they're just new to us we aren't the type of Gamers that play enough 2023 we we'd make our like top two or three list if we did that be a short video yeah um but we often times when we're buying new games start buying older games that we just you know had been on our radar or hadn't been on our radar y um so it'll be fun to see kind of what Rose to the top here it is definitely a more first impression type of list like I know some of them that I'm looking on my list I played like one time with somebody you're at a disad you're at a disadvantage because your your birthday is in December and Christmas you get like this inflow of all these new games right at the end of the year so yes so there's definitely stuff here that I wait on his opinion in this video take yes yes it's it's just a fun you know gets us to talk about some new games you know once we roll around to later in the year and do our top games of all time that oftentimes is a little bit more we've had some more time to play some of these games see how they compare to some of our like historical favorite games yes um but yeah let's uh get started I definitely leave down in the comments

1:34 what are your top new to you games in the last year you know top three give us your top 10 you know whatever you feel committed top spending time in the to put aund games down in the I don't know how many I don't play that many new games in a year but yeah that' be yeah who who who played the most new games yeah in the comments that'd be be an interesting thing to find out yeah I mean we definitely like spend a lot of time playing the games we love a lot year over so we we don't we don't play tons of new games every year but we we do post some new games uh we'll have links to all the games that we are talking about in this video down in the description below if you want to check them out but we need to get started because we got a lot of games to talk about so Daniel tell me about your number 10 what's what squeaked onto the list this year yes uh the game that uh squeaked on is actually the game on my list that I owned the longest before getting finally played this year uh shame yes uh and and it's due to the uh uh Legacy nature of it a game that you gifted to us and this is going to go to my city squeaking on the only reason it uh is is lower on the list is I'm just not super far into it um we were able to start uh my playing my city with a group uh there's four of us and I think we've played through oh gosh we've probably played six or seven games of it which I don't

3:06 know how many I know there's like the is it chapters per chapter yeah something like that um so probably six I would guess uh but we really have enjoyed our time with my city um you know polyomino game that uh you're uh placing tiles on your board and it's really fun because it plays so quick uh you know that it's kind of the first thing it's like you you know you can have a bad game and it's like okay well that took you know 10 15 minutes and boom let's play if you had a bad game you usually get better rewards at theend that is true yeah and so and every game there's kind of it's building on itself you know your new things are happening and man I've cooled on a lot of the like I don't know Legacy things but I find in my city it's just it's not it's just tasteful it's like oh that's that's nice and oh that's nothing Earth shattering yeah it's nothing like Earth shattering it's it's nothing you know crazy or anything like that but uh yeah we we've uh been able to play with through that several times and Ryan Ryan Ryan I'm losing you oh my gosh you might have to cut it

4:18 here well we're back Ryan back indiff clothing Ryan did not Ryan did not recover after that fatal cough it it wasn't happening a tragic yeah tragic yeah we we weren't going to be able to finish that so we're what a couple days later now we're going to give it another go I've got my tea I feel better than I did two days ago you know keep fighting on for the channel here I think you were talking about my city I think you pretty much wrapped up your thought I think I was about done yeah so let's uh jump on to my number 10 here uh yeah so my number 10 is a newer obviously new to me but it is a newer game that came out within I think the last year or so um a game that piqued my interest for kind of the category of really kind of more accessible um welcoming game you can play with just about anybody thought my wife might like it which she did so that's been a big um to it and that is trekking through history o and so this is actually like the third in a series of I think it was trekking the national parks trekking the world and now trekking through history I've played trekking the world um it's fine it's a very it's it doesn't really have it knows its audience like it's very much for like a family weight um you know it wasn't really anything that excited me I think checking through history does some

5:49 interesting new things though CAU my interest um you know it basically boils down to just drafting cards from this card row but everybody's got these itineraries of like what types of experiences they're really just like colored tokens that you're trying to get in any given uh era and depending on which cards you get which that you go to and what uh slot they're in because that'll also determine what bonus tokens you get it determines what tokens you get and so you're kind of trying to decide what's best for you but kind of the kicker on it is that every card has a year and you ideally want to be taking cards so that your years are going in logical order because you want to make the longest TRS possible to score more points um so very simple very easy to teach the presentation's really nice um there's a nice little extra twist with the like Time Warp deck that gives every uh round kind of a special thing and it's got the whole whoever's the furthest back takes the next turn so you might take a card that you use five time and it might be a little bit before you get something MH so simple but some nice things going on um and I just had good experiences with it yeah for what I want it to be in my collection um it feels very different from other games I've played and it's just got some nice decisions on any given turn of which of these is the best for me to take the tradeoff of how much time I'm spending you know what I'm getting for it what I'm going to be able to do the time can be kind of an interesting thing because

7:20 you know if you're if you take something that's not very much time you could potentially get the next turn as well if you don't catch up to somebody and so you can kind of think okay if I was to get the next turn how are things going to shift or maybe there's a card that's like that'd be really good with the years I'd keep them really close together yeah um so it's nothing Earth shattering um but I just had good experiences with it and and it really it worked well two-player with my wife we had some good four-player games with it um so it makes it onto the list at number 10 yeah that was one that I agree like I wasn't sure if it was gonna have anything that was going to I don't know it didn't help you and your first couple turns I think forgot about the whole year the years going get the tokens yeah I was like not fun at all uh yes no that I enjoyed that one so uh that is what that honestly has piqued my interest a little bit nice simple but it's got some interesting stuff with it so cool beans uh that's your number what we man the cut Ryan I'm just so lost here we didn't get very far we talking about literally the first game I'm just so disoriented okay so coming in at my number nine new to me uh for the year is a game that I just uh recently talked about because I squeezed it in uh at the end of the year uh got to play a couple times because I borrowed it from you and this is going to go to Chronicles of crime I was very happy that I got this

8:53 one in um this year especially before having a child I'm not another child I'm not sure that uh you have to block off a little bit of time for you have to block off a little bit of time so our our oldest was down and uh and we had some had some time to do this and were able to actually get two games in uh first game went horrible uh didn't solve anything I blame myself uh just terrible terrible uh um research on my part but the second game was a blast uh we had a ton of fun with it you know it's um I think it just does such a good job of um you know obviously having a it's I would say the the missions are are a really nice challenge I mean they're not going to be I mean maybe if you're really smart they'll be too easy like I dummies like us it's just right because man I had in no way felt this was like easy um and yet it was it was just it's such a satisfying like to be oh have this person ask this person about that person or ask them about this I mean and you're really able I mean it doesn't tell you what to ask and so you're really trying to think make these logical connections of uh you know asking you know them about this and and so that and then when it rewards you is just so satisfying and so that whole system we've played the first you know two missions we've got to finish kind of the third of the little

10:24 is it a tril beginning Trilogy missions or whatnot um but is one obviously it's not like a new game this year I mean how it's been out for been out for a while a while now but years old but one that I I've always you know had on my radar and was finally able to kind of borrow it from you and and get it to the table and was uh really pleased with it so I'm excited to uh even see you know continue to play through it I mean there's there's endless amount of content that you could do for it but uh it it was a lot of fun so number nine Chronicles of crime nice yeah I know both of us have played Sherlock Holmes Consulting detective before that and whereas that one is wide open I mean it is like gosh do anything um this narrows it down a little more to like need what you can do yeah but it's still as you unlock more people and more objects it's still enough choice that it's not just on Rails or anything so I think it's prettyy good I got so lost in Sherlock I remember the one time I played it I was just spamming every location I'm like there's got to be some of the moments I remember from shock where we did figure something out were so satisfying CU it was like the game did not give you them I digress into my number nine which was one that I definitely had a hard time rating on this list because I played it once with you um and it's it's always hard after one one play with a game like this to really know where it sits for me one play with and when it's with Daniel it's really hard to that Danel it's like

11:56 okay yeah so hopefully everybody understands the challenges I'm going through here but Russian railroads we specifically we I guess we played the ultimate railroads game but we played the original Russian railroads map out of it this is a game I've been wanting to try basically since it came out like I think like 10 years ago yeah finally got the chance to play it new and I think it very much lived up to what I had kind of heard about this game a very satisfying engine building that feeling of getting to just like pump up the points that you're churning out round over round as you upgrade these things I didn't have a great game of it I definitely didn't like realize the importance of getting there's that action that you like take the worker action and then you get that person for the rest of the game oh the are you talking about the extra worker or whatever yeah yeah whatever that like ability that comes out and you and your wife got all of them I didn't get any of them and late in the game I'm seeing you guys take those actions yes yes I know what up okay yeah well I realized like oh you guys have the advantage now of like you can always fall back on that back you can't get blocked on them and I was like okay that's pretty helpful so I got absolutely smoked now granted this is a game that probably in a lot of games someone's going to get absolutely smoked because it's engine building up to like 300 I mean what 300 plus point games I would have to go look back at the scores

13:26 but yeah they so it is the type of game that you you might be going into round four of six or whatever and go well they're going to win like there's almost no way with this engine buil because they're gonna only score more than they just did which was more than us so it's got that aspect to it that like it may not always be close you may know you know ahead of time but man is it fun to engage with that system and I know you've played some at least one of the other maps and it sounds like there's some pretty fun kind of variability and kind of how they mix up that formula so what I would definitely love to try again um but made enough of impression to make my number nine yeah I totally forgot you so you just played that one once was that right yeah when you were when you were visiting here yeah I know I that one is a really nice one always helps when my wife loves it as well so um yes fun one to have cool okay Ryan coming to my number eight is a another game that I do not own game you own it's basically everything on this list it's either one of us owns it or the other person owns it that's that actually yeah is a good question are there any that it's neither of us own no um yeah so this is a game you own is a sequel I think is what you would call it to a game that you had originally and we both enjoyed and I was skeptical of this sequel but playing it fully because the

14:58 first time we didn't really we had to like leave early uh but I finally got to play it fley a few times and I believe this is definitively the better version and this is going to go to Welcome To The Moon oh that's right yep so I was thinking you were talking about another game that was a no no no Ryan Welcome To The Moon because this is the first year I um got to play that one and I think played it multiple times at least this summer I remember and I again I was I was kind of skeptical cuz I don't know at first it just seemed like welcome to was very nice I just liked it and I don't know you're well first of all you say something about like a campaign thing and I'm like okay no like I don't yeah I still have never touched and I'm not sure I ever would touch that but even the whole like oh there's different modules I don't know even the word modules I'm not a Hu like in board games I'm just cautious when I hear that because I just want to play a game in its best form I don't want I typically don't want to have to like oh choose this or choose that you know so I was a little unsure but when we played it I was like this is really really nice I mean we I've played I think a couple of them now and they take kind of the welcome to formula but each one just adds a really interesting kind of twist on it or changes the puzzle and makes it uh you know I I think just even a lot more interesting and so playing through it a couple times um you know I've always I I'm actually been thinking about it now I don't think I have any

16:30 type of like roll and right game or flip and right or how you've avoided that I know somehow I have stayed beneath the wave of a million uh options but it's something I know I want eventually because I I played it you know played several and and enjoy it and so I I think maybe I'm sitting back and waiting to like let Ryan feel all Ryan feel them all out and we'll see what surfac is and so far this has been the one that's kind of surfaced to the top that's uh is one that I would definitely consider getting so really happy to get to try it and uh that's what brings it in at my number eight very nice my number eight is the game I thought you were GNA say as you were descri were you like mentally preparing for like crossover oh you were so excited then I just let you down no cuz a lot of what you described also applies to the game last Bastion which is a game that I would call a sequel to Ghost Stories which I had in my collection for a long long time really enjoyed find we kind of had the realization that we didn't enjoy the white moon expansion the kind of complexity and time it added and kind of back to just Vanilla Ghost Stories once I realized that it was like well there's a new kind of version that I wonder what and I kind of checked it out and I think it just it's not like way better than ghost stories but for me this is what I want out of it and so

18:01 this ranking here I mean I already really like ghost stor so it's kind of like a it's not really like this really new thing coming in and surprising yeah but I'm really happy to have it in my collection haven't played it that much but have had some good games with it but I feel like I've played it a lot because I played ghost stories like 50 times so um the system I am very familiar with G yeah it was that's one of the oldest co-ops in our collection one of the most over the years to hit the table deliver exciting moments system enoy when you play a game that many times and still want to keep coming back to it I mean that just you know that's our that's ultimately like what we're looking for one of the that it's like we can play it 50 plus times and still be still know it's going to deliver an exciting game and so yeah and ghost stories honestly is probably responsible for some of the biggest exciting standup moments I've had in co-op games because it's so hard and sometimes it all comes down to this final thing um and some of the glad that last Bastion got made I'm a little you know bummed that I don't think it's like that many people have gotten it I don't I never hear about anybody talking about last Bastion yeah but I'll talk about last Bastion it's pretty good game yeah enough to make my number eight of the Year nice good stuff uh number seven uh coming in here squeaking squeaking in at

19:33 the end of the year oh I was like seven isn't squeaking solidly on the list oh I see what you mean uh no squeaking in at the end of the year uh just got to have only played it once uh but uh you know there's been some a little bit of hype I think around it in the board game world right now um uh got it uh myself got to try it and I I think think I definitely see why uh why it's it's gotten some buzz and this is going to go to world wonders uh world wonders you know a polyomino game where uh it's polyomino but you're um you know every round uh each player you have seven coins that you're using to buy these uh different shapes and place tiles out and you're and then I mean the highlight of the game right is those monuments that are just beautiful looking and they're just you know there's well I don't know what kind of dopamine Rush there is when you place one of those on your I do wonder if like the design of the game if they' like started with that Vision we want we want a game that like looks like this when you're done and then like reverse engineered it from there oh to I mean it's you know we care so much about mechanics obviously and like but it it is amazing how presentation and when done well can enhance I mean it's the number one reason that game got attention when it was announced before I don't know if it

21:04 was J or something easily could have just been TI you know shapes just like the other ones with pictures of the monument on them and suddenly my first impression would have been oh another poino game like there's so many whereas it whereas those are just beautiful they stand out and they it makes it when you look at your board at the end of the game it's so just dissatisfying you're just like oh at that you know and and when you place one it just feels so big in fact my only maybe complaint that I have is that the actual abilities of the like I I almost wish The Monuments had like kind of some variable I don't know some kind of they kind of just all give you a point or two point you know they're kind of in terms of what they actually do it's functionally the same um but man they they look so cool out there um but but the whole system I thought just works so well it's uh I love when there's placement restrictions and it's tight and you're having I mean you're you're having to think about a lot of stuff here because You' I mean we played even with the optional like objectives so you got some objectives you're thinking about uh the whole Monument thing is interesting of how the cost of it is the rest of your gold and so you really want to try to wait until you have only like one gold left to get the monument but if you wait someone else might take it and then you always have to when you're placing buildings have to go next to the same color buildings or next to a road and so you're trying to position your roads so I mean there's just all these things you're trying to kind of like bring

22:36 together um and it's uh it was really enjoyable we played at two players I know uh one of the things I've been hearing is that it can maybe get a little longer uh at more players but um well obviously it's going to be longer but uh you know potentially excessively longer I don't know we'll have see about that but uh really enjoyable one excited I got it in got to said that one truly is a new new to me game so there you go it's good to have a few really new ones to give us some uh some credibility I got to try a chess this year it's the latest rage I don't know if you guys have heard about it yes yes we we got a few new new new ones on these lists yeah okay what was that number seven that was my number seven my number seven is not new but it is it it is old but it's a game that has gotten a huge Resurgence through a really quality Kickstarter reprint um and it's actually kind of funny seeing it get received so well and seeing all these people that are like you know newer to the Hobby being like man yeah they made good games even back in 1999 which I think is when this game came out so funny this is raw um it's an classic auction I would say auction push your luck set collection game from Riner Kenia one that that I always like wanted to try but like you know it never was quite to the top of my list and it was kind of in between additions finally a really nice new addition from 25th Century games um

24:09 and what a it's amazing to play a game almost 25 years after it was released and have your first impression be wow this is so different from anything I've played yeah and maybe that's just because I haven't played a lot of like auction games but it is such just a fascinating puzzle of all you have these Sun tiles that are all open information so you know like the bidding power of everybody and it's very like exact it's not just like oh dangel sitting over there with 20 money and I have 14 money like how much are we going to bid each other it's like these very discreet tiles that you're going to have to bid with and it just leads to so many interesting decisions of how you you know do I bid to try to force you to like you know beat me for less than what you want or let me get something there's that whole dynamic but then what we're bidding on is this set of tiles that every time a new tile is drawn it completely changes how everybody is valuating that set I mean it could even be a disaster that Suddenly It's like more negative than it was but you'll have someone that like has tons of the uh Nile tiles I'm going to mix up which way these go I think it's the NY or the the NY tiles only score if you have a at one flood tile I think and so if I have a bunch of Nile tiles a flood tile coming out is really big for me and for someone else it might be almost nothing like one point um so I just loved that

25:40 Dynamic the push your walk of how long is the round G to go with the raw tiles um so really good experiences with this so far look forward to playing it more yeah um my number seven yeah that's one that I uh need to play again I know the game that I had of it was uh what oh man here we go Ryan round two I think I think we're okay oh Lord you just talk for a while okay all silence R and editing don't worry guys um yeah that's one that I need to play again uh because I think the one game I had of it was a very uh very weird game of it I don't know I just remember there was it was very odd how every how things came out yeah we got more raw tiles than normal yeah um but what you were saying earlier got me thinking I feel like now all these old games that are great the Publishers or the designer and publisher just need to come out and do like a reprinted Kickstarter it's what's happening like so many are coming it's like oh nobody will play it but if we throw it on Kickstarter then people will the kickstarter hype machine man it gets people to spend more money than they'd ever spend if it was just coming to retail right yeah maybe all these people then will see how much it cost people will see how much it cost on Kickstarter and then just go buy the really cheap you know old version yeah there you go I saw raw at the thrift store over Christmas through it was like decimated you it looked like someone's dog ate through part of it but uh hey we could might have been missing some pieces but could have played raw for there you go 20 cents here we go well Danang it what's your number six here yeah number

27:12 six uh I don't know you might be surpr well I don't know this is a game I know I'm going to love but you might be surprised given off the one play I have of it that it's on this list uh but number six is going to go to too many bones uh so this I wondered if it would make list based on the one weird play we had yeah yeah we had a very weird play we won didn't weren't super um we kind of chose the wrong yeah we weren't super prepared so we're in the rules a lot and the we chose the shortest boss because we were like okay we just want to play you know the shortest game but he end up being kind of not the best first one to do because and we didn't look at him ahead of time so we got to all sort of mess but I just sitting there I was like this is my my type of game holy cow I mean the characters I mean it's just so exciting I mean I know they're insanely complex when you have this like double-sided s you know size eight font that you're like reading all your abilities it's a little overwhelming but oh my gosh it feels so cool the characters and how different they are and uh I find the that whole just um fighting on the map system is just really interesting even just visually with the chips and all that but uh and and the abilities and I know I have in no way even probably experienced too many bones fully but even just the in that first game the uh I mean we love games of EX you know of um you know

28:45 almost gave me a little bit of the Mage night feel of like progression and you're you're going through and it's building up to kind of this final thing but uh I I really love how you can you can kind of class you know take sh you can choose totally different routes so you want to go with characters um we obviously chose very much the wrong ones given our I think you just didn't roll well enough oh my gosh I rolled so bad it was it was rough um but anyways it's like I throw it on this list because it's like if I I know if I play this more this is going to be like this could be one of my favorite board games and so it will come in at number six on my new to me

29:31 well we are back once again I think we're trying to set a record Ryan for how long how many different days can be um recorded two days later two days this is going to be the only video we post this year just oh man yeah it's we're uh we're getting a little tight on the editing window now but we will uh we will push through fighting through I've got this time I've Got Tea loaded with honey I threw a cough drop in there Ryan is all in look at the dedication yes I do this for you the viewers yeah you better feel pretty good but I subcribe for Ryan putting that in for for you yeah everybody's going to be like why didn't you just edit out all the coughing and like well the the actually the plan now is if it happens again you're you've got you've given me the script and I'll just read what uh what you're or we'll just yeah we'll have ai read it there you go there you go okay well to my number six yes I believe so I I don't know yeah just go for it this is a dumpster fire right now let's just my number six uh is a game I played a lot this year and that's largely because it is a campaign game which that often times will get a game to the table consistently uh this is Lord of the Rings Journeys in Middle Earth and this is one you know we had both we've both cooled a lot on Campaign games it's just really hard to decide to do a campaign game these days with all the other games

31:01 we want to be playing but this was one that I kind of liked how it used I the app assisted thing that kind of was with Mansions of Madness or some of these other games that fantasy flight has done that kind of offloads a lot of this upkeep and lets them do some cool things um it's in an IP I really like with the Lord of the Rings I had a group in mind that I was like they both love Lord of the Rings like and they're like we'd be able to get together regularly um and so the thing it all kind of aligned to be like you know what I think actually this makes sense right now um and we've had a great time with it this is the one that we made it to the penultimate scenario we have only the finale left but one of our group members is living in uh the UK for a year our viewers are waiting in anticipation how does this campaign end how does it end um but yeah it's just a fun experience it's got a lot of focus on kind of like story and exploration but it's got kind of this fun deck mechanism of you know On Any Given turn you're scouting two cards and deciding do you want to equip one you can like equip one of them so that you can use it but you can put the other one on the bottom or the top but then that deck is also how you resolve skill checks so you can manipulate like I'm going to put this this card's good but I'm going to put it back because it's a success so that I know I'll have a success on my next skill check so there's a little opportunity for you to just feel like you're being kind of clever I like the uh upgrading between missions yeah because you can pick what classes you're

32:33 playing and you get experience in those specific classes and then can buy upgrades so you can kind of multiclass so every time you play it you could go for very different builds as far as what cards you get in your deck um so yeah it's just it's been a good time um you know I I don't think it's one that I see myself like playing campaign after C like I could see it being one that like sits on the shelf for a while and it's like it's not really active but keeping it it for the opportunity where it's like you know what this would be a good opportunity to play this again you know someday with kids it could be a really fun one yeah um to play uh so yeah it comes in at my number six yeah it's one of those games that I think about can you imagine if when we were first getting into board gaming and we have like no games if we got a game like that we would have played so many Camp we would have probably exhausted the content they had for it but it's like the same thing with like you know if we had had Gloom Haven or something back then my gosh we probably would have played multiple campaigns you know and had played all each played all the characters yeah it's but now too many games to commit all to to multiple campaigns yeah that's awesome okay Ryan coming in at my number five game that has already been mentioned on this list so it was new to both of us um and it was your copy and I tried it and then I bought it so this is gonna go to last Bastion you already mention I forgot

34:05 that you bought it yes I know this was a this was a sneaky buy and it's actually kind of a little funny backstory of why um it I purchased it but it was leading up it was a crazy good deal of you know Facebook Marketplace but um leading up to Christmas but it's that's always a risk because hypothetically someone could have gotten me it for Christmas but I was like oh that's really unlikely um so I just I was like I just won't tell anyone and if someone gets it I'll be like Yay L past year and I'll just sell the other one so that's why you kept it a little under kep on the DL and then after after Christmas I uh I revealed um yeah I actually haven't played my copy yet which is funny um I need to get a group together but uh I had always you know we have as we mentioned we love ghost stories it was one that I always knew I wanted either ghost story or a game that gives that kind of I almost think like Elder chore kind of experience in terms of just like you know Cooperative fighting stuff um Chuck and dice Chuck and dice but in a I just love the time frame of of obviously originally ghost stories it just always fits such a nice spot a lot of times it was kind of the end of the night you know you kind of after you a good game to kind of end on um because it always led to uh exciting moments and stuff like that but playing last Bastion um I you know it just cleaned up so much

35:35 stuff and I you know obviously being able to um it's you can because the whole thing with the boards right is that you can now use uh the ability yeah that you can mix and match whereas before like if you use the front side you couldn't have the back ability in the same game so there just a lot more and they have more abilities so I love that that there's just when you've played ghost stories 50 times with the same you know combinations it really like makes a difference yeah the production value I think is great I think it looks beautiful on the table and all of that um the whole now does it have one extra tile or uh because now the tile right the tiles aren't necessarily the same every game I'm forgetting now I want to say it's the I want to say it's the same they just just changed a couple yeah there's a few of them that are a little different right sorry I'm getting it mixed up there and there were definitely ones in ghost stories that we almost never used the ability on it whereas now they all feel pretty usable like even the graveyard one that's usually for resurrecting somebody that dies has like another thing it can do so it's like okay um so that's really nice to feel like the whole you know because we would lean pretty hard in Ghost Stories into like the same four or something like our core ones yeah so you know they I thought that was all really nice changes the what interesting one was now you can move diagonal which feels like a gamebreaking change and yet it feels so

37:06 great you know I was impressed at just that that didn't like totally blow the game up that it's it feels very just good and balanced and and all of that so we've already uh harped on it uh on how much we like it already but yeah coming in my number five last B nice yeah neither of us remember what what we talked about when I talked about last B I know see that's the problem Ryan it was so long days ago we we may have sorry if we just repeated ourselves this new this new channel strategy of of segmenting our videos over M video over mult reink that New Year's resolution yeah yeah uh my number five is one that I don't think was new to you this year but it's your copy of it that I've played um and I only played it once um but had a really good time and I think it also is just like I see the potential with the system and like how it can be expanded and this is cthulu death may die and you know the core thing in this game is that you pick an elder one ancient one I forget what they they call it something different in like every consistent it's the same it's the same them but then uh you pick a scenario which kind of determines the map it determine some special rules and what you're kind of doing yeah and so like there's just so and it's like meaning both of those are very meaningful for the The Experience um and so I just love that cuz every time you play you can just mix and match even

38:36 with the amount of content you have you're at the point where it would be a while before you'd be forced to have to play a combination played before I think you you have what 18 you have three three or four ancient ones and six scenarios I want want to say I think it's four now cuz I just got one I I think I you have to play 24 times if you happen to get the season 2 one I think that had six scenarios um and then yeah it's just like you could always be playing a combination you've never played before which I find very appealing yeah um but yeah it was just it it took things we like about a game like Elder tour about some of these makes it a little bit more dungeon crawly makes you feel like you're in the room moving around doing these things it's not feels more yeah in the thematic kind of honestly what we liked about Arkham Horror I think a little bit yeah I think it brings back a little bit of that feeling it's got the huge minis where you know Arkham you got these little cardboard tokens and it's like oh my gosh this huge dark young and it's just the same cardboard token here it's like oh my gosh that dark young you know yeah looks absolutely terrifying and so that's just a cool table presence we've talked about how we love the uh characters and this mechanism of the more you go insane the more you unlock your abilities and so you almost like want to go more insane but you don't want to go completely insane um so it just makes it even when you're getting hurt it's fun yeah it's got this great escalation to

40:06 towards the end of the game you're rolling more and more dice the you know I know in our game like I think we were playing cthu he came out onto the map and it was like we got to go and just like yeah it's just a very it kind of drops you right into the third Act of a story it's like we are at the climax there's no like yeah there's no slow buildup you're you're just I I mean there obviously is a little bit but even boom you're going yeah I love that and it's not that long compared to like for how big it is and everything so I really enjoyed my play of this one it's one that I like think I'd like to get at some point it's always hard to like you know it's not a cheap game and I know once I uh get into it I'm going to be interested in expansion stuff for it too yeah it's literally the expansion system is like our favorite type where not only is it adding new stuff but it's Tech it's improving every other you know since you have the whole combination thing everything's being all your content's being improved by every expansion you get so yeah we we love that kind of stuff and I would say historically we're the type of people that were like you know we'd rather the games be cheap keep them cheaper and not do like these ridiculous production cuz it's like we don't want to pay so much for this thing that's not like to the gameplay I think over time we've come around on that a little bit of just realizing what a really strong

41:37 presentation can do for the fun factor in the experience like it is a real tangible thing and so while it's like a little ridiculous you know some of those Minis and stuff it's oh totally cthulu it's like did he really need to be you know 20 times the size of your investigator but there's also an ele that man it it's trying to build this scale of like and and it just fits the matically and I know not every game some of there's games where it does feel excessive but here it I think they really nailed it with kind of the production where they there's intangibles of just like the excitement of getting into the table like for someone who's coming in and hasn't played it it just looks cool it does um so yeah one that I'll have to see if it makes it into my collection M you know at some point uh but it is it is probably one of the highest on my list of games I've played that I don't have as far as ones that intrigue me so that is cthulu death may die there you go coming in now at my number four I think uh a little bit of a backstory Ryan and I uh purchase games with very different approaches you know Ryan very much you know educated doing tons of research and like has got is you know these are the ones I'm I'm going to get uh me I I much more take the approach of uh there's a ton of good games out there and let's just let's just pick up ones that are good deals find's a good deal and then he ask ryy is this game this game good

43:09 get I'll research it a little bit and then uh and then check it out so number four is an example of that was a uh just on sale at a uh I think I was at a Miniature Market in uh St Louis and uh yeah I'm sending Ryan pictures of like the clearance tell you I'm I'm at work and I just get you know walls of games and tiny photos are any of these get good yeah I I appreciate Ryan and how he's helping me along uh but this was one that you you uh highly recommended uh already been mentioned on the list and picked it up and this goes to Ultimate railroads uh yeah I knew nothing about it beforehand um and I it was funny I knew Russian railroads um but I didn't know you probably didn't know a lot I didn't know I didn't know a lot about it but I had heard of that but I didn't know there was this kind of um sequel where they to essentially took all the expansions put one box you know improve some stuff um but yeah so kind of you know whereas Ryan goes into a game kind of really knowing what it's gonna provide sometimes I'm going I'm like well Ryan said it's good like okay I trust him glad I didn't fail you Ryan delivered because um both my wife and I uh playing we originally you know playing it two player really loved this game I mean we started out with just you know the core uh gameplay I think uh we love you know worker placement games are are really fun it feels uh feels tight you know tough kind of tough decisions

44:40 on the worker placement side of things I think it's really interesting how the you know you've obviously got the three kind of railroads that you can you know build along but each one is kind of a very different strategy and whatnot so you've already talked about that all of that it's a great system a lot of fun uh we even got to try the German railroads uh because in this ultimate railroads they have different German railroads uh I think there's a us one there's a I think there's a new like Asian one that is brand new in that Edition oh really yeah yeah like I don't think it had existed before Oh in Ultimate railroads okay yeah yeah so we've so we've played the German ones and fantastic I mean so it takes the um you get an obviously a new board but now of the three railroads there's like missing rectangles in the railroad and then out in the display there's all of these options for what you can like acquire to like complete so you're almost like customizing your three railroads and there's and I'm like oh my gosh this is like rhina my like favorite type of thing it's like take the core beautiful system and now there's variability in terms of the approach you can take with each thing and so that was just such a fun uh game to play I haven't played the other ones yet but um just that entire system works so well um really delivers on a lot of what kind of uh both my wife and I enjoyed got to play with you you really enjoyed it so

46:11 uh yeah uh that what brings it in now at my number four uh it was just a fantastic time very nice Definitely one I I would like to play again um I want to play again I've it's been a it's been a little while here yeah you know it's always hard we don't see each other that many times a year so it's like which games do we play when we're together yeah um but I had a good time with that one it's true um number four my number four uh this is one that is another example of like actually a new game um you know new 2023 release or the end of 2022 but um and this is one only played it once your copy of it um and we both came away feeling it was a very strong experience that lived up to we want it has a lot of what we know we like in a lot of other games this is Earth and earth falls into this category of games it's like giant deck of unique cards there's really a lot of Randomness in like when you're doing draws from this giant deck and what you get and then engine building cards combo together and you're trying to find ones but Earth kind of does some things that other games that we've played in that genre haven't done one is the simultaneous play which is a huge one honestly cuz like in the what two hour game we played it was less than two hours I think oh it was like an hour and a half yeah and it like it was just this feeling of having played a two and a

47:42 half hour game in totally an hour and a half I felt like I had played terraforming Mars in an hour and a half like that was the feel yeah and that's to be fair we love terraforming Mars and in no way do we I know some people have said like oh Earth rep you know replace the tur something that's not the case for us like they're they're different uh categories for us but yeah loved that simultaneous play loved the spatial element of the grid and like sometimes that matters with what's next to each other like I had something that could make growths on like any of the eight cards around it it also determines the execution order for your abilities which also can really matter like I remember I had ear I I Riz that early on one of the actions would create gross for me and then later I could spend those gross to do something so even if I have no gross if that hits it's always going to give me enough that I could spend them yeah uh so I really liked that um you know the beginning of the game you get a choice with like these I think it's like which island you do and which climate and Island climate and there's a lot of them like there's a ton to use so it's always going to be like a little bit different um so yeah really really really enjoyed this one it's another one I guess I said this about cul death D but it's another one that I don't own but I've played that's like up there like man this feels like one um that I could be interested in I know we talked about before honestly the game it feels most in competition with is probably wingspan just from like kind of style

49:14 game in length and weight um yeah but we'll see because we you know we've enjoyed wingspan too um so I'll have to see like do I see myself owning both does one of them kind of win out but really fun fun first play of Earth yeah well I'll just continue the the talking Ryan cuz my number three is also going to go to Earth nice um yeah it's it is really interesting when you know when you because there we we were talking about I would say it's more similar to wingspan than terraforming Mars in terms of just uh but what's so interesting is and and both of us love Wings spam is I just feel at the end of the game I feel like I've done so much more than I did in a game of wingspan and that's just inherent with the with the you're doing you're not only are you just doing a secondary action you're executing your whole thing every turn you just it's an engine building game where you get to use the cards you play over and over and over over and over again um which is a great it just feels good yeah yeah so it uh yeah man that game really delivered it was I mean we're playing it the first time and I'm just like this is it it felt really fresh I mean obviously it's like it it B borrows mechanics that a lot of games have used and stuff like that like the whole I choose a primary action everyone does the second like that's not a new thing but I don't know the way just like that came together

50:45 with like all the cards which isn't a new thing but you know uh combined with that that whole you know 4x4 grid I just felt like man that works so well that's so interesting it's so there was no fluff in the game it was so tight and it just felt uh like all the mechanics just came together in such a great way there's you know in it's infinite replayability all already in just the core game with how many cards there are it's a game you could so easily expand and add more shock if they don't good business people my gosh uh that game just you know is asking for it so uh yeah there's one thing that I I could see people kind of not liking about it is like the actual abilities and things you're doing it is pretty dry it's like there it's like you're either creating growth or the little uh I forget what the little cubes are called uh sprouts sprouts um you know like nothing you're doing is that flashy or exciting and it's it's kind of crunchy it's like o i created some to spend some to do some to get some just kind of that but like if you like that and that doesn't bother you like you know a lot of but I could see that being some people kind of and even I remember at the beginning of the game when you look at that initial handing you haven't played before it was overwhelming yeah this is but you pretty quickly kind of get familiar with the different icons and it's like okay I kind of see what what's going on here

52:16 yeah well and and it was interesting you know I played um with uh one of our cousins and you know he was talking about how one of uh you know he was um you know I think liked it but maybe didn't love it as much as we did but I think one of the potential uh things about it is there's so many ways to sort score points you know I'm I'm a very tactical so I love just like okay I'm gonna convert this to do this to get you know and sometimes it's hard to know am I doing the best thing I don't know I'm kind of just converting a bunch of stuff into stuff and making a bunch of things happen yeah there's I feel like there's a lot of times you kind of just have to make a gut decision of like I think this action will be better for me this turn cuz if you really try to like definitively answer as this action better than act this action that requires you to mentally run your whole thing and be like okay if I did this I just St three Sprouts i' get this many you know and if I do this so I think yeah like it definitely lends itself to people that are okay kind of going with more of a gut strateg tactical decision I'm all gut no brain that's my uh there you go put ont okay Ryan there's my there's my number three what's uh what's yours number three well how nice that the number three is the game for you is the game I gave you for Christmas and my number three is the game you gave me for Christmas A A that's so sweet uh so you

53:47 mentioned this one already I had the luxury of besides our one game that was kind of a lackluster introductory game I did have a solo play two-handed that really was a lot of fun and kind of like I think elevated this for me this is too many bones and it's this is like a lot in a game like when I was trying to learn this game and read the rule book and each character has like this giant sheet like this is not an easy game to learn um and you know those first few plays you're going to be in the rule book a lot but it just it reminds me a little bit of Mage Knight in just like how much it throws in with different you know enemy abilities different all these different things that when it comes to the point of combat you have this interesting puzzle it's the same way like Mage Knight is always that way of how do I solve this battle it feels that way here the huge distinction is too many bones is so dice driven um and so you know depending on people's taste that's either terrible or exciting yeah we come from where we love dice but we also love games that you know don't have dice MH um so I feel like it's a really nice compliment in my collection to Mage Knight because it does give a little bit more of this exciting and the Tactical nature that comes out of I've rolled dice how am I going to use them how am I going to react to this role that I got that I maybe didn't plan for um so it's

55:19 what I'm really looking forward to playing more you know I'll probably once in a blue moon play solo it's long right now and it's right now it's hard for me to get long solo games to the table uh but really would like to play it with two or three players um fortunately I do have a friend that has already played it with a different group so like there you go I don't we don't have to like teach it um you know completely from scratch uh but yeah really enjoying it a little fearful for my wallet because one chip Theory games are just expensive because the component quality is so nice and it is really nice it's fun to play with these really nice chip and all the and all the C dice but it does mean they have all this expansion content and none of it is cheap because of how nice it is uh so we'll see uh how I decide and if I decide to expand it over time but as of right now I'm pretty pretty high on too many bones as a strong new addition to the collection and looking forward to playing it more yeah that's awesome is that that's the heaviest solo game you have well I haven't actually played Mage Knight solo I actually want to something I me you do yeah you totally care yeah and like that's Mage Knight is like in the board game Community that's like the biggest fans of Mage Knight or the solo players so it's one I should now that I've gotten a little bit more into solo gamer I should try at some point especially because I haven't played Mage Knight in really quite a long time I want to play M it's a tragedy I know it's a game um so yeah those are kind of become my two long long you know solo

56:50 games in my collection and then I've got some of my lcgs like Lord of the Rings and Arkham horor kind of like more mid and then you know something like final girl just keeps hitting the table cuz it's fast and it's got the r right so cool cool cool okay so we are now to is that that was your number three right so we're coming in now to my number two game um you know Ryan sometimes when there's a lot of hype in the board game World about a game uh you almost have a little I I don't know sometimes there's some skepticism of like okay is it is it really deserving of all all the hype it's getting this game has been sold out it's been you know I think almost some of the hype is been because it's been so hard to get and then when people see a game's hard to get they assume oh this is must be a really good game finally got our hands on heat pedal to the metal and it deserves the hype I like to be honest playing it I I wish I had in front of me how many times I've played it this year so far I want to say maybe probably five or six times uh gotten it to the table and it just it I it gives everything I would want in a racing game um honestly uh it has um you know obviously it's just the presentation of it to start off is just it looks really cool on the table you know you've just got this big nice looking board not just I don't know just it gives that awesome

58:21 feel and so that right off the bat is great um and then you get into kind of the the mechanics and I think I've always said that racing games are really tough to make because you you either run into the problem of not making the player feel like they're racing fast you know you're just like crawling along or you run into the problem where it's just like so luur I mean that the game that comes to mind you know is like a formula D which is you know a good game we had it back in the day but where it's really just you know you're you're chucking Dice and you kind of are hoping you know hoping for the best so a really strategic racing game that allows for big big moves and comebacks but also you know gives that fast exciting racing feel and I just think heat paddle the metal brings that all together right here um we've had we've played it several times together and it's it's amazing to me how with in the I mean the card play system is just so good the whole managing heat that is just a such a fun mechanic because there's times where you I mean you're not going to win if you don't you take heat because you everyone I mean it's the it's the whole you're pushing it to the everyone's pushing their cars to the Limit because ideally you know you would have no heat to or you know you would use all your heat by the time you cross the finish line because you're maximizing your car but

59:53 you obviously there's you know when is the best time to use it and uh and and you know the game the the whole managing kind of going around curves that's really the core of kind of winning the game is how well can you play the curves you know uh whenever going around a curve you kind of have to stay under a certain speed and if you go over past that speed you're going to start taking heat but sometimes you need to you know because you're if if a player ahead of you is past the curve already you know they're a full turn ahead of you but if you can push something to you know get past if you can get close to them you can slip straight like sometimes yeah yeah sometimes it's like if I push this I not only can get around the curve they've gotten around but I can land right behind them and actually like bumpe with that bump ahead sometimes can be so critical because if the next turn is coming up quickly MH two spaces could be the difference of I could actually hit the next turn and they are going to struggle to hit the next turn because you know they would have to take so much heat to go around yeah I think it the whole slip streaming thing I mean I I I would guess most racing games have some sort of slip string mechanic but in heat pedals of the metal it is so cool because it's it's not just okay you go couple I mean you are going a couple extra spaces but because of the way curves work slip streaming is huge yeah slip streaming doesn't add to your speed going around a it doesn't add to your speed it's and so just that was a a

1:01:26 wonderful decision and the last thing I'll say about it is I you know I think it's super fun even just the tension of when you're I mean you're at a disadvantage when you're in first place because you're going to be going first every round so you can't slip stream off anyone but then there's the little game you're playing with the people behind you of like okay they think I'm GNA go here so they're going to go to try to get right behind me to slipstream but what if I maybe I either lay up short or I push myself to go a little bit further so they can't slip straight you know there there's a lot of those kind of games happening with the people around you because slipstreaming is so huge I think that's a ton of fun there's variable tracks there's the whole garage module you can customize cars we haven't even done the tournament stuff yet there's so much in here and it is a blast to play um the compu kind of computer Legends module Works fantastic I'd play this two-player with my wife we have and it's been great although will say when we got to play a full did we with six yeah oh that was great that was just and just having more people around the table doing it was awesome so yeah fantastic one deserving of the hype my number two heat ult to the metal wow good stuff thanks R wow yeah I mean you covered it that was uh my my number two uh is one that I I've talked about how I've been doing a little bit more solo gaming I'm in a season right

1:02:57 now where solo games do get to the table a little bit more and so I'm kind of leaning into that it's like if ever there's a time to maybe get some new ones to to be rotating between now's kind of the season in life for me to do it um and so that motivated my purchase of buet heart wow number number two I've played it a lot I've only played it once multiplayer which you were you were in that game oh that's funny played it many many times solo such a unique game I mean it really the bag drawing from the bag push your luck um and then the puzzling of clearing things with patterns and paing that with what level 99 loves to do which is just like crazy variety with abilities and that kind of stuff um the solo play is arguably or Solo or I guess Cooperative because you could you could do Cooperative as well I think is even better because you have these variable bosses that you face that are have their own ability and have attack that they're doing so besides your person working very differently because they are like very different each one um you might be facing a boss that like there was one of them I was playing recently that every one of the well the normal way they work is their attack patterns are like you need to have this pattern present on your board at the end of your otherwise they're going to hit you with the attack so it's this added thing and

1:04:28 besides clearing I got to kind of make a decision do I think I'm going to leave bullets in can I get it in a way that prevents it or do I just say I'm getting hit by this I'm gonna prepare to get hit by this that's sweet um and minimize the damage but then they often times have other abilities so like I was playing this one that like each of those attacks shows two of the five colors on it and during that round if you clear those two col ERS they hit you instead so like it's this puzzle of like okay I cannot clear Reds and blues this turn I need to just focus on other things and like that just completely changes the feel of it um and I just love across all of the different uh like anime girls in the game It's Kind of a Funny strange theme this boet hell anime thing it didn't it didn't hook the theme didn't hook me on the first uh look yeah um but I love that it's kind of leaning into being wild um and it leads to some wild abilities and stuff but really is a different game and I mean I play it Solo in like 15 minutes but feel like I've done like and so it's I mean I'll sometimes sit down and play it a couple times in a row and mix up things or it's fun to retry the same one and be like okay how am I going to beat this boss because it really is like kind of a puzzle of how am I going to do differently I really do want to try it Co-op because like playing it player you're playing against the boss and I think they add some things that there's

1:05:59 some ways that you can like help each other um I think that could be a lot of fun especially if both people are familiar with the game but it rose up my list really because one it's I mean it's gotten to the table a lot and I've had a really good time with it but it also just like fills something different from what I had um yeah like it's fast like if everybody knew how to play this multiplayer especially we didn't play with a timer when we were playing especially if you played with a timer although you might you know stress people out yeah I mean you're talking a 20 minute or less game which this is way more game than you normally would be getting out of yeah that length um so yes very much enjoying this one almost certainly going to pick up bullet star at some point which is another Standalone so you basically double your content in terms of heroins and bosses and stuff as well as I know they've released additional other expansions it's going to be hard to resist them because it more it's just more combinations and stuff you can play with and if there's one thing you've learned from this video If Dango and I hear the word combinations we're just that's that's what we are looking for so bullet heart makes it in at my number two yeah our board game approach is like so we you know we keep accumulating games we get rid of the ones we don't play and we find the ones we love and then we just expand the heck out of them and just drill them with plays yeah especially

1:07:29 when it's just more and more variability and fun like that yeah that one uh obviously I played it once and really actually enjoyed it my wife loved that game she was like that was so much I thought she might cuz she likes kind of The Puzzler thing yeah she I mean if she likes it I I wouldn't sleep on considering that one for your collection I will not sleep cuz two two player co-op like if you decided you preferred the Co-op to the although you're not much a coop okay so you'll just go head to head you just go head tohe and get beat down by her us problem but uh yeah I don't know what it says about to you but yeah she just likes beating me yeah uh okay Ry number one I actually I haven't really thought about what yours is but I if you thought enough yeah I'm not going figure out but you're not going to just be surprised uh this a game you've actually already mentioned on your list I'll give you a clue there um and is one that came in as a replacement uh they're not the same game but in my mind it was kind of replacing a little bit of in fact they're not similar at all but replacing Mansions of Madness um sold that game but I love I mean we love the cthulu theme uh we've just had so many good experiences with that know it's a great theme for a Cooperative game it is it's just fun kind of scary I don't know it's it's all that good stuff um so the latest popular one that and I was like

1:09:00 okay it's uh it delivers that but it delivers actually in a shorter time uh great variability and this goes to cthulu death may die so it was this year I I for some reason I thought maybe it squeezed in last year n yeah I remember distinctly telling you CU I don't think you knew much about this game which I guess true of a lot of game but I remember straight telling you Dango you would love this like there's times where I go you would Pro you guys would probably like this or whatever this one was like this is a Daniel game yeah like through and through well and it's so funny the contrast of I sold Manch Manis um to get this game and it's funny that contrast because my big issue with maners of Madness was like I had a good time with it and and whatnot but when I realized how horrible the replayability was cuzz I'm like which that's maybe a little harsh because there's a lot of scenarios for it and stuff I apologize to all you man you uh replay the same one I I redact I redact that statement when you don't have a lot of content for the game because you're I mean honestly the answer is just keep getting more content you keep playing no more stuff well and I it's hard when you're playing with a new group and it's like well we have ones we haven't played but they're longer or like maybe not the best introductory right and so it it just I just didn't like the realization that some of the fun of the first play is

1:10:32 permanently gone for me because I don't have the surprise and that's just inherent I mean that's you know that like it's I shouldn't have been surprised by that but I just realized that's a bigger deal than I originally knew and it was a little longer than I was thinking to the point where I'm like man I could just kind of be playing other T at this point you know if I'm going like maybe go 30 minutes longer I've got a game that I love a lot more so I was like can I get something that is kind of like it but in a very different time slot and cthulu death may die nailed this I mean the games play quick I mean we were talking about that it just throws you right in and you're running and it uh the scenario I've played uh several scenarios now and each one uh feels pretty different and and feels really different obviously when you add a variable monster in as well I mean one thing you know you didn't mention was that the the scenario so every scenario has a if you don't have a monster on your space on your turn you can investigate the space kind of search the room and try to find something so you draw something from a deck and you kind of read the center and then you usually have like two options or kind of something like that well every single scenario has its own custom deck and so and it's and is like thematic to that scenario and so when you're exploring it's that but then the every monster has you know obviously the boss monster but

1:12:03 also has uh some I think they're just other another like kind of monster type that's unique to them and uh has ability and yeah just the way those come together it just makes it so fresh and fun so going from man manness to now this game where I'm like oh my gosh the variability is incredible this is like I I already in the core box I have so much I can play and and I could play I could play the same combination yeah I was going to say it's much better for playing the same it's not relying on the story for like there's not yeah there's not I mean there maybe is a tiny bit of like oh that's interesting but like for the most part it's there's each scenario has its own kind of puzzle rules of what you're trying to um that it kind of just lays out in front of you and then obviously you you know once you get through it you fight the final boss there's not a lot of like whoa big twist or something so you know don't go into this game thinking it's gonna scenarios are going to offer that but I'm not really looking for that and so uh you just combine the puzzle the scenario with the uh the Unique Mechanics of the O overlaying boss bring them together and man Ryan you talk about games that it's like I'm just going to want to keep expanding it I mean the you know Season Two uh box right now for me is a must a must buy although honestly I must buy but I kind of just want to hold I'm not

1:13:35 urgent because there's so much in the core box you don't you don't need more right away well especially cuz you you've gotten two additional yes ones right I know I uh I'm looking back right here yeah I got yeah you just got someone just got me the black black go that was that was part of our uh birthday package siblings I know I haven't gotten to play it since gosh that that and last Bastion I gotta get those get those to the table um so just incredible I mean it's it's it nailed it out of the park I mean it just was exactly what I was looking for and not only it's number one not only because of the amount of fun I had with it this year but I just see it's an absolute staple it's going to be one that I'm going to continue expanding and uh is going to be a blast for years to come so there's my number one Ryan cthulu death may die yeah it is funny like as much as uh there's a lot about like Kickstarter crowdfunding culture in modern board gaming that I don't like and cool mini or not is kind of at the Forefront a lot of that with just these Mega hype campaigns with so many stretch goals and you know it's pushing people to get way more content than they should be getting for a game given how much they're actually going to play it right that said there's some great games that have come out of it and cthulu death may die as an example of that it's like it's not just the kickstarter hype like it really

1:15:06 is a very good game and it's a game that benefits from a lot of that extra content totally honestly the biggest thing I think people need to ask themselves is am I actually G to play this game enough to use these things right you know we're the type of Gamers that like to find games and then play them a lot the that we really like um we don't need to play every new game uh so for us it's like sweet yeah great opportunity totally cool I'm gonna take one more sip here before I launch into my number will you do that I have no idea what your number one is I've been I've been well then you're going to feel dumb when I say it you're just GNA you think I've already said it probably well no I just hav said I just haven't been thinking uh that hard about it but D talk about very I know I know for theal I just had to think for like five seconds and this was tough my my top like four on this list were actually all pretty close when I was ranking these yeah I think and you really touched on a lot of what I like about heat I think there's some things that uh just boosted this to the number one spot for me I think one is kind of the weight it sits in it's kind of hard to find these you know people talk about like Gateway welcoming games kind of that plus like that layer right above that um that I really enjoy and that I want to keep getting to the table like I don't have like a ton of games that I feel like are in that kind of spot um he is and it's great in that spot then it go

1:16:39 it's a racing game which I have yet to find before he a racing game that I really liked and wanted to own that gave me that feeling of racing so great hit of the theme I think the mechanisms implementing that are brilliant then it goes to six players which that hits another Niche that is hard to find yeah soon to be seven they're releasing only one at a time with each unbelievable yes as if we're not going to get them um and so it's like well now I really don't have many games that play well to six but are kind of like a strategy game that's got a little bit more but not you know a ton um then on top of that it plays well down to two my most recent game was two-player filling out the other four cars with that Legends module still felt great then you add the fact that it in the Box basically has the first expansion in there with the garage module and the weather and all of this stuff and it just I just love having this in my collection every game I have had of it has been great I love the system and the potential to expand it um there's the Heavy Rain expansion or whatever that that's been announced that's going to add you know map a seventh player and some other things I'm like I'm going to get it like right um so it it does really kind of feel like I found my racing game at least like for just like

1:18:09 traditional racing you know there's something like uh you know you see something like Vendetta or Thunder Road Vendetta y um that's like in my mind kind of a different category it's like racing but it's like beer and pretzels killing each other and craziness where this is just like a racing system that just works brilliantly um so so glad it had been on my must buy for almost a year before I finally was able to get a copy yeah I remember we you you messaged me at like I just like got out of bed and you're like game nerds has heat in stock and they had like 50 copies or something yeah and we each got one and like 30 30 minutes later they were sold out yeah and I was like oh my gosh like these it is crazy it is and I know a lot of people are like why aren't da a Wonder like making enough and I'm like well I think they are it just really it's very popular everybody's buying it up um yeah and I would say I think that bodess well for more expansions too because it's clearly doing so well I would say you know I'm excited for the expansions but I say I think the core box is good value you know I mean the fact that you get multi four Maps you've got uh you know obviously the six Racers you would never have to get an expansion totally if there weren't expansions for this game I would still love it yeah that said you give me the ability to the option to go to seven you give me some other uh variability I'm all here for it well there you go Ryan those are our uh

1:19:41 top 10 new games to us in 2023 well I want to thank you all who put up with Ryan during this video uh we got through it let's go uh hopefully you enjoyed it uh we got links to all of the games we mentioned down below that's a great way to support the channel and as always we've got a couple videos right here why don't you click on one of those and we will see you in the next one